Read Riding With the Devil's Mistress (Lou Prophet Western #3) for Free Online

on
agitated horses before the mercantile. Two more men were on the
broad loading dock fronting the place. The two appeared to be
fighting with a longhaired girl, who screamed.
    One of the men yelled something
and smacked the girl across the face. When the girl went limp in
his arms, he carried her down the steps to the street, where the other
men were heeling their mounts back and forth before the place,
six-shooters drawn and raised above their heads.
    Several squeezed off shots skyward, just
making noise.
    ‘ Now
what in the hell is that all about?’ the bartender said as he
scratched his noggin.
    ‘ Looks
like a damn holdup, if you’re askin’ me,’ Prophet said, all his
senses suddenly coming alive but not quite believing what he was
seeing.
    ‘ In
Luther Falls?’
    ‘ I
admit things look a whole lot more like Dodge City suddenly,
but...’ He was already walking down the street, instinctively
heading toward the fracas, his gaze on the men milling before the
mercantile.
    ‘ What
are you doing with the girl, Day?’ one of the horse backers
yelled.
    ‘ What
do you think I’m doing with her?’ another man returned as he
climbed into his saddle, hefting the girl in his arms like a feed
sack and throwing her over the horn.
    ‘ No!’
the girl cried. ‘No!’
    An older woman ran out of the
mercantile, screaming, ‘You can’t take my baby! Please, no! Nor
    The man with the girl calmly
drew his revolver from his hip, raised it to his shoulder, aimed,
and fired. The gun clapped, smoke puffing. The woman who had run
halfway down the steps of the loading dock stopped suddenly as
though she ’d
forgotten something. She sat down and rolled to the
side.
    The girl screamed.
    That ’s when Prophet realized beyond a
shadow of a doubt that these men were highwaymen and that they were
not only robbing the mercantile, they were kidnapping the girl.
Here—in Luther Falls!
    He ’d run half a block, his heart
pounding, when he saw the sheriff turn the corner on his left. Not
wearing his suit coat or hat, Beckett was carrying his shotgun.
He’d probably been eating lunch at home when he’d heard the
gunfire.
    ‘ Good
shootin’, Day!’ one of the horse backers shouted.
    Day laughed and holstered his
gun. ‘Come
on, Dave, we got the money,’ he yelled at the store. ‘Leave the
candy alone!’ He laughed and shook his head.
    ‘ Yeah,
come on, Dave. Let’s skedaddle!’ another man yelled at the store
while several others shot their six-guns in the air.
    Walking down the side of the
main drag opposite Beckett and a half block behind him, Prophet
reached for his revolver but grabbed only denim. His heart skipped
a beat when he realized the Peacemaker wasn ’t there. He’d hung it in his room at
the boarding house, having decided it would only get in his way
while he toiled for Cordelia.
    Besides, who needed a gun in this idyllic
little berg?
    The blunder mocked him now as he made his
way quickly toward the dozen gun-toting firebrands itching for
war.
    He ’d pulled up at an awning post a
block from the mercantile when another man walked out of the store,
grinning and holding two big paper sacks in his arms.
    ‘ Hit
the mother lode, boys!’ he whooped, holding the bags
aloft.
    ‘ Come
on, Dave. We ain’t got all day.’
    ‘ What’s the hurry?’ Dave said as he took his reins from one
of the men riding horseback. ‘I say we see if there’s a gun shop in
town. I could use a new Smith & Wesson.’
    Standing by the awning post as
other shopkeepers gathered on the boardwalks, mumbling, frightened,
and confused, Prophet gritted his teeth. These firebrands seemed to
think they could ride into town and do as they pleased. What was
here was theirs for the taking. They showed no fear whatsoever, and
very little urgency. If they knew there was a sheriff in town, they
certainly paid no heed to the fact. Their guns were drawn, but mostly for
show and to make some noise.
    The disregard these men showed for law and
order in